Canadian Government funding of Homeopathy in Honduras #2

A previous post discussed the use of homeoprophylaxis by Canadian homeopaths in Honduras in a project partly funded by the Canadian government. There has also been another news story. There is yet another story which mentions the illegality of homeoprophylaxis in Canada.

Montreal Institute of Classic Homeopathy
MICH would appear to be a driving force behind Canadian homeopathy "volunteers" in Honduras and a source of the volunteers. 

There is something called Homéopathes de Terre Sans Frontières (HTSF - which will be discussed in the next post) but as the website states - 

MICH Faculty, Alumni and Students have all played a part in these missions often funding their passage and accommodations by themselves.

Homeopaths associated with MICH claim to have been travelling to Honduras for many years, long before the founding of HTSF.

The founder of MICH is Judyann McNamara. McNamara has some strange ideas about quantum biology and vitalism as evidenced by her own website. This interview makes for even stranger reading. It would not appear that she has been to Honduras herself. Even more bizarre -`

The proposal this article is making is that mitochondria are “informed” by an underlying field, the vital field. As the primary structures related to adaptation and evolution, they also bridge the environment (larger reality) with the perceived inner reality of the individual. They determine if, when and how the organism will adapt to the environment. 

Martine Jourde is apparently the originator of the "missions" to Honduras.

Her background in physiology and epidemiology, as well as her more than 30 years of experience in using homeopathy both in private practice as well as in community settings in Canada, France and Cuba among others, make her an expert in the use of homeopathy to strengthen communities. Because of its ecological and economic aspects, homeopathy can contribute to sustainable development and to access to health care and prevention in both the developing and Western worlds. Martine’s strong motivation comes from all these years of seeing the positive impact of homeopathy wherever it is used and knowing that homeopathy can help to restore harmony between all living organisms on the planet.

What this "background" is is never mentioned. To practice homeopathy in France, Jourde would need to be a doctor. Likewise Cuba.

During countless homeopathic missions in Africa, Central and South America, Martine developed homeopathic complexes and protocols that are effective in circumstances where disease goes hand in hand with wide-scale poverty and lack of medical services. The HTSF model of intervention is not solely based on giving access to homeopathic services, but also includes training of local professionals and community leaders to increase their capacity to provide these services themselves and increase their autonomy. Research is another aspect of the work of HTSF and Martine Jourde leads a scientific homeopathic research project on Chagas disease in Honduras, and participates in many homeopathic clinical and prophylactic pilot projects in Cuba.

Apparently Jourde presented a report at a conference NOSODES 2008 in Cuba. No published research can be found. Jourde is mentioned along with Isaac Golden in the infamous Cuban leptospirosis paper but was not directly involved in it.

Jourde also gave a talk at the 2018 Canadian Homeopathic Conference - the blurb there says she is director of the Agency in Research & Development and Education in Homeopathy of Quebec (ARDEHQ) which seems to have no online presence. 

Jourde also seems be behind a Canadian company Labo Solidago that sells homeopathic veterinary medicines.

The person who currently seems to be at the heart of this is Carla Marcelis who seems to originated from the Netherlands. Marcelis may be the co-author of what appears to an AIDS denialist tract. The paper was put together with assistance from Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives (HEAL as was) which is a notorious AIDS denialist organisation. 

Here is a photo of Marcelis with AIDS denialist Charles Geshekter. Marcelis may have changed her position on HIV/AIDS but Honduras has the highest prevalence of AIDS in Central America.

Marcelis claims to have studied medicine but decided not to practice it. There is no way of proving this either way but it is interesting to note that no mention is made of any qualification obtained.

A video of Marcelis talking about the "mission" can be found here. There is also a very long podcast here. The podcast is specially disturbing. It reveals that combination remedies "complex" are being used. Classical homeopathy it is not. There's a focus on epidemics that is worrying. The volunteers use homeopathy for prevention - including nosodes. Which is problematic.

Marcelis' efforts at fundraising in 2018 did not seem to go too well.


Status of Homeopathic/Naturopathic Practitioners in Quebec
Quebec is a civil law jurisdiction, unlike the other other Provinces and Territories of Canada. The practice of homeopathy, naturopathy and other forms of CAM seems to be tolerated although strictly speaking, the practice of any form of medical treatment by medically unqualified lay persons is illegal.

Research
On the Terre Sans Frontières (TSF) website, there is this in French. It seems likely that there was an English language version of this somewhere - a dead link was found on another homeopath's website to an English language pdf. The pdf has not be archived unfortunately.

Chagas disease is caused by a microspic blood parasite called Trypanosome Cruzi, it is one of the principal cause of death, andtouches almost a quarter of the population of Central and Latin America. There is no vaccine for this plague. Early detection is difficult, analysis uncertain, and prophylaxis inexsistent. It is one of the worst attributes of poverty. In 2007, the Chagas project was born, partly funded by the ACDI and a donation from the Third World Alliance Trade Unions (CSN), and an extraordinary inter-professional collaboration between HTSF (led by Josée Grenier, microbiology technician and homeopath, and Martine Jourde, director of HTSF – Homeopathie de Terre Sans Frontieres) and Dr Momar N’dao, director of the National Center in parasitology of Mc Gill University (NCRP) at the Montreal General Hospital. The first goal was to set up a clinical laboratory allowing the detection and the transfer of analysis of Chagas disease in the targeted population from Valle de Angeles.Two homeopathic nosodes were then made by the NRCP, including one which was a world premiere. In the first phase of the pilot project, a population of over 500 people, mostly children under fifteen years and women of childbearing age were tested, received prophylaxis and training as to how to identify and avoid transmitting agents of the trypanosome, and a general homeopathic consultation.

The ACDI is l'Agence Canadienne de Développement International -  French for Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). It's now part of Global Affairs Canada.

Because of this success, we are putting in place the second phase of this project which is the extension of this approach to other communites at risk, where the prevalence of disease is worse than the one in Valle, especially in remote areas. Through this project, we can save and improve the health of many communities at risk, especially the young and women, in other areas of Honduras and in all the Americas. For this, we need to continue our collaboration and we invite our inter-professional to get involved.

It is unknown whether CIDA knew what the money was partly being used to fund a trial into homeoprophylaxis for Chagas. The potential involvement of McGill University is more problematic. If the research was conducted in collaboration with McGill then it would require ethics approval. It is very unlikely that approval would be given by a Canadian university.

As for McGill manufacturing nosodes? That would be highly unusual.

This from TSF is not very helpful but..

Scientific collaboration agreements can be signed between the UNAH-NRCP (National Reference Centre for Parasitology of McGill University, under the direction of Dr. N’Dao) and HTSF. Honduras can become independent in the early detection, prevention and care of Chagas patients thanks to homeopathy.

UNAH is the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. If such collaboration agreements exist, they can be obtained. It is curious that neither McGill or UNAH make mention of a collaboration. Certainly for UNAH, this would be very newsworthy. Worse -

In order to render the project of integration of first line community based homeopathy and homeoprophylaxis autonomous and sustainable within 5 years, HTSF will guide UNAH in the installation of a laboratory that will manufacture homeopathic complexes for first line use, as well as the organization of a central pharmacy as storage location, and for distribution of first line homeopathic remedies necessary to supply the communities taking part in the homeopathic integration project.

And

In November 2015, Norbita Medina and Carla Marcelis were sent to install a homeopathic dispensary and begin the practical training in first line homeopathy of professionals and volunteers in two selected Honduran communities (Opatoro and Teupasanti). In April 2016, Josée Grenier, a homeopath and microbiologist-technician, who collaborated in the Chagas project since its beginning in 2006, will go to Honduras to reactivate the technical transfer to Honduran microbiologists.

Grenier would appear to be a laboratory technician as well as a homeopath. It would be odd for McGill to send a technician.

It will be interesting to read what McGill and UNAH have to say about this. Experience has demonstrated that the statements of homeopaths often can not be taken at face value. Exaggeration of the nature of links, engagement, etc is common.